Notes: Although the West London Line reopened between Willesden and Clapham Junction on 2nd March 1863 there was no station at Shepherd Bush as there had been in 1844 when the line first opened. A spur from the Hammersmith & City line at Latimer Road to the West London line at Shepherds Bush opened on the 13th July 1864 and the Great Western introduced a service from Moorgate to Kensington. As there was no station at Shepherds Bush the Great Western is believed to have opened a temporary station at the southern end of the spur line in 1864.

Contemporary maps show the station was built but it is unclear whether it was ever used. It would have been abandoned when Uxbridge Road Station opened on the north side of Uxbridge Road on 1st November 1869 a little to the south of the site of the original 1844 Shepherds Bush Station and east of the LNWR's coal depot.

The station had a large brick building on the north side of Uxbridge Road with two entrances onto the street protected by two glass canopies. Covered stairs led down from the roadside building to the platforms. Each platform had a similar building comprising waiting rooms, toilets etc and a canopy. At a later date a footbridge was provided at the north end of the station with direct access to a wide arcaded covered way to the White City. The entrance was also substantially altered with a single entrance in the centre of the building and two shops either side.

The station suffered during the blitz. During September and October 1940 the station and goods yard were hit nine times and the station was eventually closed on 21st October 1940 although it continued to appear on underground maps until 1947. After the war the station was still largely intact although the platform edging and footbridge were removed, probably in the early 1950's and by the 1960's the platforms had been removed leaving just the roadside building on Uxbridge Road and the top part of the stairs down to the platforms. The adjacent goods depot was closed in November 1967 and the street level building was demolished in July 1968 shortly before construction of the M41 motorway (now the A3220) and the Shepherds Bush roundabout started.

As part of the redevelopment of the White City area, a new station named Shepherds Bush was planned for the West London Line. Any remaining traces of Uxbridge Road station were removed in 2005 during construction of the station which now occupies the mid and northern end of the former Uxbridge Road site and the site of the first Shepherds Bush Station. The

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WEST LONDON LINE
As part of a general improvement of transport in West London, the Kensington Canal was opened on the 12th August 1828 running north from the Thames at Chelsea to a basin near Kensington.

During the 1830's, the impending establishment of the London and Birmingham Railway (in 1833) and of the Great Western Railway (in 1835) was causing uncertainty about the future development of communications throughout west London. Neither company had yet decided upon the site for its permanent London terminus. But even before their

The Birmingham, Bristol & Thames Junction Railway was authorised by an Act of Parliament of June 1836 with powers to buy the canal and to build a railway northward to the London and Birmingham Railway at Willesden across the proposed route of the Great Western which opened to Bristol in 1838; thus creating a through route mainly for freight traffic from Bristol and Birmingham to the River Thames, the capital's main commercial artery. The directors of the new company expected the Great Western and the London & Birmingham to use their proposed new line as the most convenient route to the Thames. They also hoped the line would generate passenger revenue from the L & B and GWR if it was extended from their proposed southern terminus at Kensington to a new terminus near Hyde Park Corner, the gateway to London.

Construction started in 1836 with Sir William Hosking as engineer. The new line left the London & Birmingham Line at Willesden running south across the Great Western on the level where an interchange station was to be built with platforms on both lines. A further station was to be provided at Shepherds Bush before the line reached its southern passenger

Having purchased the ailing Kensington Canal Company for £36,000 the new company was itself in financial difficulty and a second Act of Parliament was required in 1840 to raise extra capital; at this time the company's name was shortened to the West London Railway. Trials to show-off the potential of the atmospheric railway system were held from 1840 to 1843 on a half-mile section of track adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs, leased to the system's promoters; but in the event, the line proceeded with conventional power.

The 2.5 mile single line officially opened between West London Junction, Willesden and Kensington on 27 May, 1844, with regular passenger services beginning on 10 June with a 30-minute interval service.  By this time the L & B and GWR had chosen their London termini and were no longer interested in using the West London Railway. The terminus at Kensington was some distance from Kensington itself and any potential commuters, and the line ran through open country throughout; from the outset it was not a commercial success.

It is said that the first train had one passenger with little improvement in the following months. In September and October 1844 passenger receipts were only £15 10s per month and according to the company minutes of 25th October 1844 "The 5.55pm from Kensington was delayed so long at the crossing that it didn't reach West London Junction until 7pm and the solitary passenger had missed the last train to Harrow." The minimal level of passenger returns became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line started being called Punch's Railway "leading from nowhere to nowhere". The company blamed the failure of the line on the refusal of the L & B and GWR to stop their to stop their long distance trains at the respective junctions with the West London and with losses of £50 per week the line was forced to close after the last train on 30 November 1844 after less than six months.

An Act of 1845 authorised the Great Western and the London and Birmingham to take out a joint lease of the West London Railway in 1846 but passenger services were not restarted and the line was only used to carry coal.  On 31st July 1854 the company was vested jointly in the London & North Western Railway and the Great Western Railway. The rubbish-strewn

Another source of problems for the line was the flat junction with the Great Western south of Willesden with a number of serious collisions taking place at the level crossing. This was eventually overcome by realigning the West London Line over the Great Western to the west of the crossing; this was brought into use in October 1860.

The northern end of the Kensington Canal was infilled in 1861 with much of its course being used for the WLER. The new double track line between Willesden and Clapham Junction opened to passenger traffic on 2 March 1863. Kensington & Shepherds Bush (renamed Uxbridge Road) stations were rebuilt a little to the south of the original sites with new stations provided at Chelsea and Battersea and a further station opening at West Brompton on 1st September 1866. A third rail was laid to allow broad gauge trains to use the extension but this had limited use with broad gauge passenger trains running into Victoria until October 1866 and freight trains running to Chelsea Basin until November 1875.

Unlike its predecessor, the West London Joint Railway as it became known, was an immediate success. A spur from the Hammersmith & City line at Latimer Road opened on the 13th July 1864 which gave Great Western trains direct access to the line from the London direction. On 1st January 1869, the London & South Western Railway opened a line from Richmond to a junction with the West London line just north of Kensington Station and on the 12th April 1869 a connection between the West London Line and the District Railway was made at West Brompton and a northbound spur from the District Railway to Kensington was opened on 1st February 1872. There was also a connection to the District Railways Lillie Bridge Depot. On 1st June 1877 the District Railway was extended a short distance west from its station at Hammersmith to a junction with the 1869 LSWR's Richmond Branch.

The new multiplicity of connections led to considerable development of transfer freight traffic between the northern and southern lines while the former also opened depots south of the river. In spite of the equivalent possibilities for through passenger traffic, this didn't begin until 1904 and never attracted the expected passenger revenue.

The first section of the West London Line to be electrified was between the Latimer Road spur and Kensington in 1909 allowing Metropolitan trains to reach Kensington. Further electrification took place in 1914 when LNWR trains ran into Earls Court. On 16th April 1917 the GWR opened a link between its Birmingham line and the North London line at North

During the 1923 Grouping the West London Railway nominally retained its independence although the West London Extension Railway was absorbed.

Despite the early heavy passenger numbers use of the line dwindled with the construction of the deep-level underground network and the introduction of trams and motor busses which provided a quicker and more convenient route for commuters to reach central London. Local north-south passengers also deserted the line in favour of road transport. WW2 hastened the demise of the now uneconomic passenger services. Following severe bomb damage, the advertised steam services from Clapham Junction - Kensington ceased on 20th October 1940 and the electric services, LMSR from Willesden and LT now from Edgware Road on 3rd and 20th October respectively.

The line remained in service as an important freight link. After the war only the short section of line between Kensington and Earls Court was reopened for passenger traffic with the service being provided by London Transport’s District Line from 19th December 1946, but only when there was an exhibition at Olympia. A workmen's steam hauled passenger service ran between Clapham Junction and Kensington with two trains in the morning rush hour and two in the evening. This service received little promotion and most people were unaware of its existence. With the closure of Nine Elms depot in 1967 diesels took over the service. Most of the conductor rails between Kensington and Willesden were removed between 1946 - 1952. The line remained busy with 30 freight trains in each direction daily and

Despite this set back for the line, a renaissance began in 1986 when the District Line recommenced a full service, joined in 1994 by a rejuvenated service on the West London Line, from Willesden Junction to Clapham Junction and from Watford Junction to Brighton. A new station was opened at West Brompton on the site of the original station on 30th

The line is electrified at 750 V DC third rail from the south to the North Pole depot, where the electrification changes to 25 kV AC overhead. The work was carried out as part of Channel Tunnel infrastructure improvements in 1993.

Local trains run every half hour and are operated by London Overground. Hourly Southern trains run between East Croydon (formerly Brighton) and Milton Keynes (previously Watford Junction), not stopping at Willesden Junction.  The twice daily cross country services from Brighton to Birmingham New

The line still carries considerable freight traffic and was used by Eurostar trains between Waterloo International and the depot at North Pole Junction prior to November 2007. Recent timetable changes have meant that some London Overground peak hour trains now continue beyond Willesden Junction onto the North London Line to Stratford.

Tickets from Michael Stewart Bradshaw from Chris Hind

Sources:

• A regional History of Railways of Great Britain - Volume 3 Greater London by H.P.White Pub: David & Charles 1971 ISBN 0 7153 5337 3
• West London Line by Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith Pub: Middleton Press 1996 ISBN 1 873793 84 7
• The West London Joint Railway by J. Atkinson Pub: Ian Allen 1984
  ISBN: 0 7110 1381 0
• British History Online - The Kensington Canal, Railway and related developments
• Wikipedia - The Free Online Encyclopedia
• Kensington Olympia Station - Qype

Click on the station name to see other stations on the West London Line:
Clapham Junction STILL OPEN, Battersea, Imperial Wharf NEW STATION, Chelsea & Fulham, West Brompton REOPENED, Kensington (1st site), Kensington (2nd site), Kensington Olympia STILL OPEN, Shepherds Bush(1st site), Shepherds Bush (2nd site), St. Quintin Park & Wormwood Scrubbs (1st site), St. Quintin Park & Wormwood Scrubbs (2nd site), West London Junction (1) West London Junction (2), Willesden Junction STILL OPEN

See also Hammersmith (Grove Road) & Shepherds Bush on the
Richmond - Kensington line